Do you remember the day’s when you were young when your parents tell you that you’re being taken to your first theme park where they have proper rollercoasters. Not your poxy little ones at Southend Pier that just go round in a circle and dip up and little and bounce down a bit.

After the rumours from Tuesday about the shoring up of defence with a 6’6” German and a Brazilian left back with wizards feet Wednesday was being embraced with great anticipation.

Yet things started slowly and it wasn’t until late afternoon that we started to hear that we were in for two midfielders – Yossi Benayoun and Mikel Arteta. Great, we all thought. Arsene’s listened to the pleas of the masses and he’s trying to fill the void left by the absences of Nasri and Fabregas. Two players of Premiership experiences and both creative in their style of play.

That was until midway through the evening we heard that the Arteta move was off. Mixed reports as to whether or not the clubs couldn’t agree a fee or whether it was in fact personal terms that had led to a breakdown in negotiations. Therefore, the conclusion was the Arsenal were playing with their usual pokerface and withdrew from negotiations.

There was discontent across the Arsenal twitter world. Suddenly Benayoun wasn’t enough and certainly not just on a 1 year loan deal. There was contempt in the air and the summer transfer window was nearly confined to the world of “could have beens” and the usual anti-climax of signing yet another out of favour Chelsea playing prior to the deadline (re. Diarra and Gallas).

But like the momentary eye in the rollercoaster storm, we’d only reached the end of the first leg and with an hour left in the window the train starting rolling backwards again and the Arteta move was back on! Hoorah, we all cried! Come on Arsene, sort if out before the Premier League fax machine runs out of paper, we can save our season if we can just get this one player from Everton who had had mixed fortunes recently on the injury front.

And so Big Ben chimed, Jim White’s excitement reached explosive proportions and…….and…..did it go through?……..it did?………yes! Everything is alright in the world, forget the 8-2 drubbing at the weekend, forget that we are 8 points behind the leaders with only 3 games played already. We have some players and they’re not still studying their A-levels.

To be true though, the shopping list requirements have been clear for the past 2 years – 1 goalkeeper, 2 centre backs, 2 midfielders and another striker with at least 20 goals in his bag.

Szczesny can fill the GK role if he can add maturity to his already maturing years.

We could potentially have a 1st choice back four of Santos – Mertesacker – Vermaelan – Sagna. These line-up can stand up on it own to some of the best.

If we needed 2 midfielders before the summer then we needed another 4 prior the season start. However, with the emergence of Frimpong, less petulance from Song and Gervinho, Wilshere remaining fit and Diaby and Arshavin potentially finding fitness and from the addition of Arteta and Benayoun are good solid additions.

Up front, Young is untested really. He’s led the line at Monaco in the past season but they were recently relegated. He’s the captain of his national squad but how competitive that team really is would need to be questioned.

So what does this crop of players provide the current squad.?

They certainly bring experience and maturity with the ages covering the range of 26 – 29 years old. Mertesacker is a great signing in terms of his international experience (75 caps for Germany at the tender age of 26 – eat that Gary Cahill).

Apparently we now have an inventor and genius in Yossi Benayoun whose other talents involve the creative design for the Israeli Coca Cola bottle. Well, that was what Wikipedia was stating last night but funny that id doesn’t anymore.

And Mikel Arteta? He grew up in the Barcelona youth academy before plying his trade elsewhere? Was his signing truly the lure of Champions League football or could it be that he wants to be next summers perennial Catalan target? Oh, the cynicism!

We now enter the mundane period of International football and to hope and pray that all the players return fit and well. Some come down from last nights excitement and with a balance still of £50M+, roll on the january transfer window. See Arsene, you can have a bit of excitement in your life! There are reasons to be confident again but maybe not too optimistic.

Pre-amble:

For the past two seasons there has been one consistent topic of discussion in the footballing fraternity:

“What is Arsene Wenger thinking?”

“Why doesn’t he recognise that he needs a goalkeeper, centre back, additional creative midfield outlets, and a striking foil for RvP?”

It was plain and obvious for many outsiders to see and painful for each Arsenal fan to ensure as Arsenal XI’s continued to fail when needed to push on and win some silverware.

And the most recent response? During the summer we have seen Arsene ship out Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Eboue, Jay Emmanuel Thomas and long-term loan deals for Denilson and Carlos Vela.

The replacements? Gervinho, Carl Jenkinson, Joel Campbell, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all of whom bought the number of Premiership games experience……0 (zero).

Sunday:

Arsenal were given a few home truths regarding the strength and depth of the squad and endure a humiliating defeat at Old Trafford.

Monday:

The morning after the night before. All that could be heard was what changes need to happen and will they happen and if they do, is there enough time.

Monday evening/Tuesday:

It all kicks off and that £100M kitty started to burn a hole in Arsene’s pocket:

Chu Young Park – Monaco striker and South Korean captain was halfway through a medical process at Lille when all of a sudden it was rumoured to be travelling to London to finalise a deal to Arsenal. What this will do for any hope of a future deal with Lille for Eden Hazard is yet to be seen but Park is now an Arsenal player. Chu is 26 years old and has won 53 caps for the South Korean national side (17 goals).

Andre Santos – up to a week ago the Brazilian left back was looking forward to a season of Champions League football until Fenerbache were turfed out of the Champions League for match fixing and now facing potential self-relegation. Arsene has jumped on this opportunity to sure up the left side of his defence having cut loose the eternally under-performing Armand Traore. Santos is 28 and has won 22 caps for the Brazilian national side.

Per Mertesacker – Mertesacker had been linked with Arsenal previously in the summary and it had looked like that was another opportunity lost. That was until Joachim Low confirmed that Per had departed the Germany squad preparation to fly to London to tie up a transfer to the city. Personal terms are said to have been agreed as well as having passed a medical so all that is left is confirmation of a £10M move from Werder Bremen. That and the chance to get away from having to pick up the slack from Mikael Silvestre

If there was one signing that was needed this summer it was a new centre back to compliment Thomas Vermaelen and after all the talk of Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka this signing is a real coup given the price, players age and national and international experience. Per is 26 and has won 75 (that’s seventy-five) caps for the German national side.

And who else?

It’s difficult to speculate 24 hours before a transfer window closes because there is going to be so much guff flying about that will never happen.

Will Yossi Benayoun or Mario Gotze (don’t google it!) being wearing red and white this season? If not, we’ll certainly get a first-hand look of the latter during the Champions League games against B. Dortmund.

There’s also the potential for a few more exits. The futures of Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Almunia were supposed to be resolved this summer. There’s been more talk recently regarding Bendtners departure but very little for Alumnia. It will be interesting in a curious way to see what happens but if Bendtner does stay he could still have a role to play this season.

Also of late, if rumours can be beleived,u there has been some interest from Europe with Chamakh going to PSG on loan and Johan Djourou to Lazio. I’m not convinced that we can actually lose Djourou given the track record of injuries to Arsenal centre backs but a loan move for Chamakh could be a no-brainer. He’s not performing at the moment and if he can develop a bit more somewhere else then great. If not, going on loan puts him in the shop window for a potential transfer in the future.

Wednesday?

This is all very promising and there is still another 24 hours for Arsene to continue his spending frenzy before the window shuts. There’s still some work to be done as the weekend result clearly demonstrated that the current squad was severely lacking but there is now hope that there will be some more surprises to come. You can only hope that the relative lull in rumours in the past few hours is down to the Arsenal negotiation team are getting an early night tonight before a big day tomorrow. Let’s hope they’ve got plenty batteries in the phone, paper for the fax machine, ink in the pens to complete all the registration form and the premier league office on speed dial for final minute registrations.

Samir Nasri Leaving Is a Watershed Moment?

There has been talk over the weekend that the Liverpool defeat was a watershed moment in Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal. Well, the goalpost have just moved again as it was confirmed today that Samir Nasri was being sold to Manchester City and Roberto Mancini could stop his little temper tantrums about whether or not Nasri was going to play tomorrow against Udinese.

There will be no fond farewell as the lure of money and a rainy climate was too much for Samir and when fans ask for committment and loyalty from players that wear the beloved shirt then Nasri leaves under a cloud called Adebayor. It will be interesting to see whether he follows a similar route in signing for the Spuds on loan in 3 years time.

So au revoir Samir, I think you had your farewell chant on Saturday when you still showed a bit of spirit but obviously the rain washed that small flicker away. Man City at home will be another interesting fixture this year.

Are Arsenal A “Big Club”?

This is actually not as provocative as the tag line might suggest and for the following reasons.

I’ve never known a summer like it but the bare facts are that we have now sold our two most creative outlets in Cesc and Nasri and there must be great concern as to how suitable replacements can be identified with only 8 days left in the transfer window. At the moment, we are left with very limited midfield options with both Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin completely out of form, Jack Wilshire, Abu Diaby and Thomas Rosicky carrying injuries; and our two midfield ball winners suspended for the next game away at Old Trafford.

There needs to be movement in the transfer market very quickly and you would like to think that Arsene has an ace or two up his sleeve. However, everyone seems to be playing Arsene at his own game by where he has famously insisted that targets will not be leaving in the near future and now we’re seeing a little payback. With so little time left to make any deals someone has to blink first but the closer we get to the deadline the greater the prices are likely to go up. Why else would Andy Carroll have cost £35 million.

So the fans are optimistic that Arsene is going to pull out a couple of rabbits out of the hat, but what optimism can we have. In an interview with the BBC today Arsene tells a sad tale:

The summer was very difficult because we had [Cesc] Fabregas and Nasri on permanent transfer negotiations and that is draining in the end. We lost two great players and that’s a sad side of the story but at some stage it has to be over, because you want to focus on the future

Yet it’s the future that is the concern. In some ways you can understand why a footballer wants success. They do have short careers and only so many teams can win the cups. For every Barcelona (of which there are not many), there are plenty of teams that will fail and players do not want to look back on their careers with an empty trophy cabinet at home. This is what has hit home amongst the senior players in recent time, Nasri cannot necessarily complain of poverty if he’d signed his contract extension and with Cesc having to take a pay cut in order to facilitate his move to Barcelona it is clear that the chance to be a winner far outweighed the salary to stay at Arsenal. There is also the risk that the ripple effect will reach other key members of the squad whose contracts will be expiring in the next year or two.

This sends out a clear message to the rest of the footballing fraternity that Arsenal may not have the same ambitions as everyone else and they run the risk of turning into a training academy for young players to make a name for themselves before moving to the first club with a gizzillionaire owner offering dream team set-ups. If this is the expectation then Arsenal have suddenly degraded their buying power for new and exciting talent – in fact, Wenger has admitted this already and his prophecy may be coming true:

“Imagine the worst situation – we lose Fabregas and Nasri – you cannot convince people you are ambitious after that.

“And even if you lose Nasri, to find the same quality player, you have to spend again the same amount of money. Because you cannot say that you lose the player and you do not replace him.

“I believe for us it is important that the message we give out – for example you see about Fabregas leaving, Nasri leaving – if you give that message out you cannot pretend you are a big club.

“Because a big club first of all holds onto its big players and gives a message out to all the other big clubs that they just cannot come in and take [players] away from you.”

So enough now of the transfer situation, things need to happen and happen quickly and when those transfers do happen will hear from them first on Arsenal.com. There’s too much speculation on the newswires to be able to make sense of what might actually happen and my blood pressure will not last the next 7 days.

Udinese – Arsenal Preview

The headlines will say that this is the biggest games of the season so far. Hard to argue really but as mentioned earlier, tomorrow’s game could define the future of this club over the coming seasons. It sends a shiver down my spine to think that we may not have Champions League football this season. I know this sounds very pessimistic considering that Arsenal are taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg but you cannot help but feel that Udinese will fancy their chances in front of a home ground and with better finishing they could well have taken an away goal too.

The squad benefits from a lack of suspensions that impact the games in the Premiership so we can certainly expect to see Alex Song and Gervinho make a return.

I would expect the starting line-up to look something like this:

Szczesny

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Jenkinson

Ramsey – Song – Rosicky

Walcott – RvP – Gervinho

I have stuck with Jenkinson in defence with the full-back line up being the same as the weekend. I thought they both did well and they would be far more assuring than Traore at left back.

It will be important for Arsenal to get an away goal early on as the team seems to have started this seasons games far stronger in the first half than they do in the second. Let’s hope it they can manage it but we all know what it’s like to be an Arsenal fan, the team always seem to have a knack of doing things the hard way. May need a few beers to get me through tomorrow evening – maybe a night of London Pride vs Peroni but will obviously be knocking back more London Pride in order to do my bit for karma.

Frimpong – A new cult hero?

On a final note, after his excellent starting debut (sending off aside) on Saturday, Emmanuel Frimpong should be applauded for his recent antics on twitter. Not only does he have a profile header that you wish every Arsenal player would declare, as well as putting Piers Morgan truly in his place, Emmanuel was quick to remind his friend, Jack Wilshire, that the future can still be bright without Nasri being at the Emirates. He obviously needs to keep reminding him at the training ground:

Can’t wait to see what other pearls will be posted in the future but with the performances and desire shown so far I can see Emmanuel quickly becoming a firm favourite (let’s hope the big money offer doesn’t come soon).

So, fingers crossed for tomorrow – the team are capable of completing the task at Udinese. Time to out in a performance that will show we’re still in the running.

P*ssed it down this evening. Anything interesting at all? Anything? Please! Not a chance

Having a constant in life gives reassurance that the world is still normal. It proves that there is order in life and reaffirms that British summers are simply lousy. Yet it’s on days like today the only way to pass away the hours and minutes of monotony is to continually click the refresh button on your browser in the insane hope that your personalised NewsNow feed might have breaking news on the new super, smashing, great, out of this world quality signing, along with his technicolour dream coat.

Alas no, the sky just continues to open its big bulbous belly and rinse away any remnants of the summer that so could have been the one we’d once dreamed of.

If it were a midweek break for a pointless International friendly then you would be accustomed to some of the fringe players being interviewed on how they are looking forward to proving they can fulfill that under developed ability to break into the first team squad. Oh……..they’re going to do it this weekend you say? Really? There’s no one else who can start? Wow!

Big responsibility actually and we’ll have a look at what Arsenals starting lin-up might be compared to Liverpool’s tomorrow.

Seeing that Arsene continues to treat August like it’s a pre-season training camp with no new signings coming in so far our pre-season squad will continue to carry on through to the end of the month.

The August pre-season schedule is as follows:

13 August: Newcastle 0 – 0 Arsenal

16 August: Arsenal 1 – 0 Udinese

20 August: Arsenal – Liverpool

24 August: Udinese – Arsenal

28 August: Manchester United – Arsenal.

Here’s hoping that Arsenals pre-season continues with its current run of lucky good form so that when the first proper game takes place against Swansea on the 10th September, the team will finally know who will be playing where and also for real points……….ermmmm.

Tomorrow we shall see the pre-match press conference which is bound to include questioning on the lack of a first team squad for Saturday; how much interest does the club accrue on a daily basis from the transfer fund currently being underspent; and will Arsene get his own phone rather than having to borrow from his mate Boro P?

Since the game against Newcastle on Saturday the world is starting to look very different. Whilst there has been much anticipation and little surprise, Cesc Fabregas now dons the colours of his beloved FC Barcelona. There has been a lot of debate as who got the best out of the deal and at face value it would seem that Barcelona are rubbing there hands with glee. They have finally signed one of the world most talented midfielders and somehow they have even managed to persuade him to forgo a £4M sell-on clause which means that Cesc has also been forced to contribute to his transfer fee.

On top of this Samir Nasri has firmly driven a wedge between himself and the Arsenal fans by publicly expressing his dismay at some of the chanting from Arsenal fans at St. James Park. The fact that the travelling support were so open regarding their feeling on the Nasri contract saga just goes to show how low his stock currently is with the fans whose expectations, by default, are very high in terms of player allegiance and committment to the club whilst under contract. To have publically tweeted the two texts below can be perceived by many as a sign of contempt not just for his own position but also to congratulate Cesc on achieving his departure.

For everyone’s sake now it’s time for Arsenal to help manoeuvre Nasri’s departure from the club and we can only hope that the recent actions have not limited the choices for an exit and, as such, reduced the value in a similar way to Cesc’s with a one and only departure to Barcelona being possible.

So with Cesc gone and Nasri unlikely to be in Arsene’s immediate plans who is going to step up to the plate and take on the role of as the engine of the midfield. Well, it’s certainly not going to be Emmanuel Eboue and the club have today agree terms with Galatasary in what is officially an undisclosed fee but rumour suggest that a figure of about €3.5 million. Again, this move was not unexpected and it’s the right decision for both parties following some cataclysmic displays towards the end of last season which was epitomised by the penalty conceded at the death against Liverpool.

The changing room will be a quieter place without Eboue as he was a larger than life character which was open for all to see when he stood on the otuchline and greeted each and every place as the left the pitch at both half-time and end of match. His turn around in character following his substitution against Wigan at the Emirates was amazing and whilst he still had his faults on the pitch his ability to deal with that personal adversity mae him into a cult with some sections of the crowd. Even during the last general election there was a campaign to vote for Eboue instead of the other candidates. Whilst this may have been tongue his cheek it helped manifest the cult status.

On the day that he was announced as vice-captain, Thomas Vermaelen lead the team out due to RvPs suspension from last seasons encounter at the Nou Camp.

The game started at a high tempo and this suited Arsenal who were passing the ball crisply and making good movements across the pitch. In their first true foray into the Udinese box a sharp cross from Aaron Ramsey was met decisively by Theo Walcott and it was One-Nil to The Arsenal within 4 minutes.

Following this no team really got a stranglehold on the game and barring a couple of chances for Udinese with Szczesny saving well in the first half from Di Natale, the first half passed by with plenty of movement but no real chances to speak of. At half-time, Gibbs was replaced by Djourou with the former suffering from a hamstring injury.

In the second half you could sense that Udinese fancied their chances of an away goal and continued to pressurize the Arsenal defence. Just after 9 minutes on the pitch, Johan Djourou was himself replaced by Carl Jenkinson due to the second hamstring injury of the evening. Is it me or does the Arsenal squad not seem to have had a problem with hamstring injuries over recent time?

Therefore, Vermaelen switched back into the central defence and there were now two right backs on the pitch and Jenkinson played out of his natural position and took the left berth for the rest of the game.

Udinese continues to press forward but were unable to convert their chances and possesion. By the end of the game, Udinese has 12 shots at goal by only 3 on target. By comparison, the home team only managed half as many shots with an equal 3 on target.

Theo Walcott has one great chance after being put through by Aaron Ramsey and whilst one on one with the goalkeeper Theo contrived to completely scuff an attempted chip and the chance ended as a damp squib.

Szczesny pulled off an excellent save from a Di Natale free kick just outside the box with the Arsenal No. 1 diving across the length of the goal to turning a curling ball around the post for a corner.

Walcott had the final chance of the evening when put through following on of Gervinho’s dazzling runs only to not put the far enough away from keeper, Handanovic, who made a good save but it could have be made harder for him.

What can we take from the game? There were certainly some areas of promise. Our defence managed to keep a clean sheet; we take a lead, albeit a rather slim one to the second leg; and the fans were vocal and supportive of the team’s performance. Note: there was no announcement of attendance as previously informed by Ivan Gazdis but official numbers state that just over 58,000 were present tonight – there seems to be many more empty seats that this suggests……

As for areas of concern, unfortunately these outweigh the positives:

the central midfield seemed to tire in the second half and suffered from a lack of concentration in passing movements Read the rest of this entry »

Whilst the deal has not been rubber stamped it looks like the inevitable is going to happen as it seems to be confirmed by certain players at Barcelona that Cesc’s departure is/has occurred. They must be so proud of the ambassadorial role they play for their club with fellow European teams.

Cesc final gets his chance to return to his boyhood club and given their success over recent time as “the best team on the planet” then there’s bound to be the chance to be successful (especially in a two team league). And there maybe that leaves open a unopen question, despite his mercurial talents did Cesc achieve what he could have done whilst at Arsenal. Yes, he has an FA Cup winners medal to his name (alongside Euro and World Cup medals) there is a small part of me that will still think, if only……….and that most probably isn’t Cesc’s fault – effected by injuries at crucial times in recent seasons as well as a lack of depth and experience in the current squad that befits Cesc’s quality. We all hear about the potential within the Arsenal first team but Cesc (and a fit RvP) has already realised that potential and the rest of the team seemed to be played catch-up.

Cesc’s times at Arsenal bought pleasure and delight on regular occasion. His work ethic on the pitch was staggering and he had the unique ability to turn in game to his advantage in an instance. I recall at a home game a couple of seasons ago (it may have been Sunderland or Stoke) where the first half was a dour affair and the travelling fans where hopefully that their team could sneak a cheeky away win. That was until Cesc came on as a half-time substitute and completely changed the game on it head – the Emirates crowd witnessed a Cesc masterclass and pass the home fans and the away team had their breath taken away.

Similarly, when Aaron Ramsay had his leg broken against Stoke you could see Cesc (and the team) responded in the best way a player can and put the opposing team to the sword through persistence and pure brilliance.

And not only was Cesc know for his uncanny knack as being heralded as the master being creator for his teammates but he was also finisher of some amazing goals, some through ability and others through significance. Three that stuck for me were:

1. The goal against AC Milan was the icing on the cake of an enthralling performance at the San Siro in the Champions League

I’m apprehensive about how Arsenal are going to perform during next season. This coming Saturday there should be huge anticipation about a brand new season, players will have had a good summer break and should be biting at the bit to win something this year to make up for the shortfalls and nearly successes of the recent past (which is far too painful to recall for now). Yet, it doesn’t feel like it.

Instead, we face the prospect of losing the creative spine of our midfield (if Chamakh is to believed) or they may stay (if Rosicky can be persuasive enough). Others players are supposed to be departing but they’re still being named in the team. And here lies the problem, where do we turn for concrete information? Whilst you have to admire Arsenals stance in not disclosing information on new signing until a signing has been completeed, the club recently admitted that they are powerless to prevent the media from creating various frenzies around speculative stories. I am pretty sure they could do a better job in confirming the pure conjecture to avoid confusion – at the time of this posting Arsenal have been linked with 155 potential signings this summer! I understand that Arsenals scouting network covers many parts of the global but surely if you were looking to bring new faces into the club you would focus on key targets and ensure that everything was completed and successful in the shortest time possible. I do feel that other clubs in Europe have been more successful that Arsenal in adopting this strategy.

Apparently this week we’re going to potentially see some new faces but I can’t help but feel that this means that we have not leveraged the pre-season friendlies and training enough to embed news players and styles for the start of a new season. In the past couple of seasons we have had pretty reasonable starts (relatively speaking) but this season the start is somewhat trickier. We start against Newcastle where the demons of last season second half capitulation need to be put to rest. This is then followed by the return of Liverpool who we are yet to beat at home in 3 seasons. And before the month of August is over there is another home match against a Premier League challenger, Man Utd and you can’t help but think that you cannot waiting for a new team to click when facing such teams.

So yes, it’s all a bit crazy at Arsenal at the moment, the recent changes in the boardroom; players publicly admitting that they have no desire to stay at the club (which hurts when you would like to think that the vast amounts of money would mean that they can actually play for pride rather than concerning themselves with how the household bills will be paid); a lack of conviction in the development and strategy of the team and the club. But today we live in a crazy world and whilst our civil society is crumbling around us its been quite reassuring to have one constant in life, the goings on of Arsenal FC and whether or not we might hear of that new glimpse of a headline that will give us fans the much-needed hope that our team will put in a credible title challenge this year. It keeps me going and I still keep the faith, that’s addiction for you!

Later on this week we’ll have a look the squad for this year even though it is bound to change despite some names being included in the Champions League squad. We can have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of certain positions but trying to nail down actually names to regular positions is currently as reliable at a Mystic Meg prediction.